About 2 months ago I started making a website for my contracting company. About 4 weeks ago I started adding pages specific to individual cities in the area that I would like to service, I put links to those cities pages at the bottom of each page on the site (the typical cluster of city names in the footer). I also did other very basic on-site SEO type of things.

I signed up for about 8-10 big name directories such as Yelp, Manta, Super Pages, etc. I also did Google WMT, Places, Google+, and Analytics.

I now see that searching Google with "______ electrician" with the city name brings my website up in the 3rd to 5th spot on the first page. I have tried this on clean browsers, at the library that I never used before, at friend's/family's houses, and even had some people around the country try it. My site comes up.

So my questions are: Do I have to do more SEO? It seems like my goal of getting on the first page is already reached, nevermind the fact that I am #3 on many of them.Do I have to keep doing something to maintain that position?Finally, some people told me that the cluster of city names in the footer could hurt me, especially with the new algorithms. I assume that won't be a problem since I only did it in the last 3-4 weeks and it gave me a good ranking, right?

dariussutherland
—
2013-02-10T08:34:18Z —
#2

If you are getting lots of traffic from your page then you can rest on your laurels.

SEO is a continuous thing and your position could drop. The thing is. if you got to page 1 so quickly, I doubt that the keyword(s) have any real traffic value. I could be wrong but have you done any keyword research??/

I am number 1 for a number of keywords but they don't bring many visitors to my site.

MechElec
—
2013-02-10T13:55:32Z —
#3

How do I do keyword research?

system
—
2013-02-10T18:49:22Z —
#4

You can use google adwords keyword tool to do some research.

revium
—
2013-02-10T19:56:43Z —
#5

I would continue to do some SEO, because you never know what your competitors are doing. The moment you stop you give them an opportunity to dig into your market share. Maybe you do not need to devote as much time to SEO as you have in the past, but I would continue to do some.

MechElec
—
2013-02-10T20:00:05Z —
#6

The thing is that I haven't done any SEO other than basic on-page SEO type of stuff that is normally built into a website.

I'll check out Google Adwords keywords tool. Any advice on how to use it would be appreciated!

Cusion1991
—
2013-02-11T07:00:43Z —
#7

SEO can do good for your website, but content is always the king. If you can provide your visitors quality and original content, then your site will gain more traffic and there will also be return of visitors.

MrCat
—
2013-02-11T08:29:18Z —
#8

If I were in your shoes MechElec, I would still do some SEO to keep you on page one. Just keep up to date with the latest Google algo updates so as to be guided accordingly.

On using Adwords Keyword Tool, you would need to have a Gmail account in order to use this tool. Upon login, click on the Tools & Analysis Tab and select Keyword Tool.

You just need to enter a keyword of your choice on the "Word or Phrase" section and then click on "Search". Click on the "Keyword Ideas" and it will display related keywords with their global and local monthly searches. You can click on global or local monthly searches so as to display them in ascending order.

Hope that helps

winagain
—
2013-02-11T18:51:28Z —
#9

Of course you should continue! Go into other keywordsif you are already ranking for "______ electrician", go for "______ electrician expert", etc.

make sure you get traffic from different sources, like youtube, facebook, twitter, etc.

system
—
2013-02-12T05:24:33Z —
#10

Yes, you should continue with SEO. Since you achieve your goal of reaching first page in a couple of weeks, there is a fact that when you achieve ranking at that speed it drops down in the same way. So don't stop working on it. Also with Keyword analysis go for competitor analysis as well. This will help you know your competitors aiming at the same audience as of yours. Pick and choose some of their successful strategies and try to grab their audience also. This will further help you in retaining your position.:)

markbrown4
—
2013-02-12T05:53:28Z —
#11

I would try to assess how valuable your SEO has been previously, if you can see it's worth your time continue doing it, if it's value is questionable spend your time elsewhere. Easy.

Personally, I do no SEO. I just build good stuff people want to use.

system
—
2013-02-13T07:15:11Z —
#12

what will you do when your competitor performs better seo activities and brings the link to the top position. The ranking may drop when Google changes its algorithm.It is best to continue the process.

dt001
—
2013-02-13T08:01:39Z —
#13

The only way to stay ahead is to continue on with the SEOOnce you stop, your competitors will outperform and all your efforts will go to waste

diyakapoor
—
2013-02-13T08:55:57Z —
#14

You should look for some more keywords. Do a keywords research using Google webmaster keyword tool. And then do some SEO activities to achieve results on your set keywords. Make sure that you don't over do SEO activities or create links from some similar set of sites. I would suggest you to do some SMO activities as well, so that not to look spam.

ochena_pakhi
—
2013-02-16T13:05:41Z —
#15

Is it a continue process?

marklouis123 said:

Yes, you should continue with SEO. Since you achieve your goal of reaching first page in a couple of weeks, there is a fact that when you achieve ranking at that speed it drops down in the same way. So don't stop working on it. Also with Keyword analysis go for competitor analysis as well. This will help you know your competitors aiming at the same audience as of yours. Pick and choose some of their successful strategies and try to grab their audience also. This will further help you in retaining your position.:)

system
—
2013-02-18T13:25:42Z —
#16

It is not exactly a continuous process.If your agenda of getting good ranking in search engine result page is achieved then you should slow the pace with which you are working because you may over optimise your website, so there should be proper proportion in which you work.So ranking of your website will tell you to continue with the SEO or halt for some time.

ochena_pakhi
—
2013-02-20T13:23:12Z —
#17

You suggested to use twitter. How twitter can help? I have idea about facebook. But never used twitter and no idea how twitter can help me doing SEO and marketing.

winagain said:

Of course you should continue! Go into other keywordsif you are already ranking for "______ electrician", go for "______ electrician expert", etc.

make sure you get traffic from different sources, like youtube, facebook, twitter, etc.

winagain
—
2013-02-20T23:51:05Z —
#18

ochena_pakhi said:

You suggested to use twitter. How twitter can help? I have idea about facebook. But never used twitter and no idea how twitter can help me doing SEO and marketing.

Social media like twitter and facebook doesn't work like traditional SEO. What you are doing in social media is creating a community. When you deliver interesting and engaging content, people will like your page or follow you on twitter. Then, you start marketing your products or affiliate offers to those fans.

CodyDeegan
—
2013-02-21T03:58:41Z —
#19

To maintain good rankings, you still need to go for your SEO...keep in mind that your competitor isnt just sitting around doing nothing, sooner or later they will catch up or else..

SSJ
—
2013-02-21T05:51:38Z —
#20

I think, you should continue doing SEO but make sure, you don't over optimize your website.. You can focus on building social signals through famous social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc.. That will help you to maintain your rank.